Cress » Review

With each book under her belt, the author of The Lunar Chronicles, Marissa Meyer, has become a better and better storyteller, improving by leaps and bounds.

Back in 2012, when I first read Cinder, the first book in the sci-fi/fairytale-retelling series, I remember being mildly pleased, but mostly unimpressed with Meyer's writing.  Quite a few elements of the story bothered me.  Without getting too far into gripes, I had issues with the pacing, characterization, and concept.

When book two, Scarlet, came around, I found myself enjoying the good aspects of the book, but shaking my head over the missteps, which seemed to carry over from Cinder.  

I decided to abandon the series, but upon the release of the fourth and final book, Winter, the overflowing and warm responses to the book had me feeling a bit morose at being left out.  So, I picked up book three, Cress, with the hope of being newly impressed by the series.

Was I ever!

I discovered that in Cress, either Meyer has become a significantly better writer, or I've become a significantly different reader.  Whichever one it is, (maybe a little of both), I enjoyed Cress immensely.

Like the books that have come before it, Cress is a fairytale retelling, this time focusing on Rapunzel.  Cress, our new damsel, is a Lunar girl imprisoned in a satellite.  An unwilling underling of the evil queen Levanna, Cress has been spying on the revolutionary Linh Cinder and her outlaw gang for months.  Cress has been hiding her true knowledge of Cinder's whereabouts for a while, in no small part due to her crush on Carswell Thorne, the young, felon pilot.  Before long, Cress is thrust into the pell-mell path of these outlaws and comes face to face with Cinder, the lost princess of Luna, and Carswell Thorne himself.

Impressing me most strongly was Meyer's skillful balancing act between many character arcs and story-lines. What started out as an awkward chorus in books one and two has evolved into a skillful harmony in Cress.  The phase "coming together" is the perfect description for Meyer's accomplishments. The third-person narration moves amongst many places and characters, creating a true ensemble story.  And unlike Scarlet, which suffered from abrupt shifts, Cress's narrative maneuvers are much more smooth.

Also wonderful was Meyer's tone.  There plenty of humor to be found, along with swoons and jaw-drops.  I was fully invested in the story, reacting to the prose like I was at the movies.

It's amazing to see how Meyer's writing abilities have flourished as this series has come along.  I cannot wait to get my hands on the final book in The Lunar Chronicles, Winter.